Posted on 12/28/2004 10:58:49 AM PST by VeritatisSplendor
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Hippocratic Oath doctors swear to save lives, not end them. But one doctor accused of doing just that also happens to be the governor of Kentucky, and a lawmaker willing to sign execution orders on death row inmates.
"There is a distinct difference between acting as a physician for a patient and acting as a governor for the people of the commonwealth of Kentucky," Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a former family physician and U.S. congressman elected to the state's highest office last year, told FOX News.
Last month, Fletcher signed the death warrant for 51-year-old Thomas Clyde Bowling (search), who was convicted in 1990 of killing a couple outside their dry cleaning store in Lexington, Ky. Death penalty opponents, including Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union, protested the governor, arguing that the case against Bowling had flaws and that he is mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2002 that executing people with mental retardation is unconstitutional. Kentucky already had the prohibition on the books when the court ruled.
But opponents to Bowling's execution also made the appeal that signing paperwork resulting in death violates Fletcher's oath as a doctor.
"The basic Hippocratic Oath is 'do no harm,' and execution does irreparable harm," said Dr. Stewart Urbach at the University of Louisville.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I happen to be against the death penalty (in the USA, today) on policy grounds, but I don't think it is inherently immoral or that the state has no right to execute killers (I just think that in our society it is not necessary). I am much more in sympathy with the proponents of the death penalty than the opponents, especially the opponents who use bogus arguments like this one to try to halt executions.
Good grief, how lousy can libs get?
This guy is not going to lose his license. The rabble rousers are just grandstanding.
Or if he does lose his license over this, I'm sure my state of Fla. will be willing to give him a new one.
LOL, they are grasping at straws on this one.
I haven't seen any major news stories about Doctors violating their oath by performing abortions.
Oh, please.
One of the requirements to be a 'Rat is to be for killing the innocent unborn and give clemency to the murders and rapists.
I agree with the governor, today he wears his governor's hat and his physician's hat has been put away for quite a while, now.
Can't he just grant himself clemency?
Bingo, we have a Bingo!
Yet another point of libs applying only what rules and regulations that they want.
LOL
I'll bet every one of the complainants is a Democrat.
Hippocrates Hippocrates, the father of medicine
Hippocratic Oath -- Classical Version
I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.
According to the left, death penalty cases are always flawed and the perps are always mentally retarded, although I thought we weren't allowed to use the term "mentally retarded".
As I've said before (or echoed), the Left hates all death penalty...except for the unborn child.
Translation?
Sad that those pagan Greeks had more compassion for the unborn than we do.
That means he will not operate on kidney stones but will leave that for a specialist.
I checked Shanda's post (#13) and I did not see this "do no harm" admonition, so I googled up THIS, which addresses that topic directly. Dr. Stu seems to be in need of retirement as he appears to be remembering his past as bill clinton did - full of realities which never occurred.
Well that must mean performing selective abortion does no harm to the developing child, since the major media hasn't bothered to do any news stories about it.
Sincerely,
AreaMan
a.k.a. A 240lb mass of cells or a 1,924 week fetus
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